The present invention relates to the field of kitchen appliances. More specifically, the present invention relates to a combined refrigerator-oven apparatus for refrigerating and cooking food in the same enclosed chamber.
Lifestyles are very busy, and many families are away from home during large portions of the day for work, school, and other activities. As a consequence, the preparation of the evening meal can be significantly delayed until the cook returns home. Many families have extracurricular activities in the evenings. Thus, a delay in the preparation of the evening meal can undesirably overlap into the time allotted for these extracurricular activities. This problem is exacerbated if the family member cooking the meal is postponed on his or her return from work or school. This postponement causes the evening meal to be further delayed.
To meet such demanding schedules, many people replace the home-cooked evening meal with low nutritional value snacks, fast food, or by simply skipping meals. This unhealthy replacement for the home-cooked meal contributes to an increase in diet related disorders, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and so forth. Accordingly, there is a need to decrease the preparation time for home-cooked meals following a return from work or school to provide incentive for the preparation and consumption of home-cooked meals rather than snacks and fast food.
Microwave and convection ovens have typically been used to cook meals quickly. Unfortunately, the preparation of a meal entails more than simply cooking the food. In addition to cooking the meal, a cook typically has to prepare the food in advance by cleaning it, cutting it, combining it with other ingredients, and so forth. This advance preparation can be even more time consuming than cooking the food. Sometimes a cook may prepare a meal in advance and store it in the refrigerator until he or she gets home, at which time, the cook will place the food in the oven to bake it. Unfortunately, the baking time can still undesirably delay the time at which the meal may be eaten.
Yet another tactic that cooks use is to place frozen food on the counter to thaw before leaving for work. The thawed food is then cooked upon their return home. Unfortunately, the food may thaw to room temperature before anyone returns home. Thawed foods that reach room temperature, particularly meat products, can become unsafe due to bacterial growth. Hence, it is recommended that most foods should be thawed in the refrigerator, rather than on the countertop.
Accordingly, it is an advantage of the present invention that a combined refrigerator-oven is provided that permits the selective cooling and cooking of food.
Another advantage of the present invention is that a combined refrigerator-oven is provided that can be pre-programmed to activate respective cooling and heating units of the refrigerator-oven.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that the combined refrigerator-oven can be remotely controlled to activate the respective cooling and heating units of the combined refrigerator-oven and to change pre-programmed settings of the refrigerator-oven.
The above and other advantages of the present invention are carried out in one form by a combined refrigerator-oven apparatus. The combined refrigerator-oven includes an enclosed chamber having top, bottom, and vertical side walls. The bottom wall has an airflow inlet opening, and a gate removably blocks the airflow inlet opening. A heating unit is positioned in the enclosed chamber, and a refrigeration unit is positioned outside of the enclosed chamber. The refrigeration unit has a cool air duct coupled to the airflow inlet opening. A controller is in communication with the gate, the heating unit, and the refrigeration unit for selectively activating the refrigerator-oven apparatus. When a cooling mode is selected, the controller actuates the gate to unblock the airflow inlet opening and activates the refrigeration unit to deliver cool air through the cool air duct to the enclosed chamber. When a heating mode is selected, the controller actuates the gate to block the airflow inlet opening and activates the heating unit.